Colorado failed once again to receive a grant in the latest "Race to the Top" competition, the U.S. Department of Education announced this morning.

In the previous two rounds, Colorado was a finalist, but did not receive any funds.

North Carolina, Massachusetts, Washington, Delaware, Ohio, Maryland, Minnesota, Rhode Island and California were chosen to receive anywhere from $45 million to 70 million for the competition's Early Learning Challenge.

Colorado was one of 37 states to apply for a portion of the $500 million available through the program, and asked for nearly $60 million.

Its raw score of 233.4 points out of a possible 300 (77.8 percent) ranked 12th, about 10 points out of the money and 36.2 points behind top-scoring North Carolina.

This round of funding focused on initiatives that address children's early education, including kindergarten readiness, and also developmental health.

"The state's Race to the Top application was developed through a collaborative process that brought together the state's smartest child advocates," said Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper in a prepared statement. "This extensive planning helped create a clear roadmap for pursuing the best educational outcomes for our state's kids. Colorado is a national leader when it comes to education reform and we remain committed to supporting our teachers and students in every way possible."

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Federal officials praised the winners for innovative ways of combining elements like pre-reading skills with health screenings, exercise and nutrition, and noted how they took steps to engage parents to help their children succeed.

Reviewers of the applications gave extra weight to states that had already begun implementing their programs over those that simply described plans for the future.

In a nod to the states left out of the funding, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said progress in early learning won't be limited to the nine winners.

"By pushing everyone to raise their game, we intend to foster innovation in early childhood programs around the country and certainly share the best practices of these nine states with others who are eager to learn," she said. "The only way America can out-compete the rest of the world is if we out-educate the rest of the world."

Colorado's application focused on supporting professional development and incentives for employees at early-learning centers and day-care facilities, and also in assisting those centers to start aligning use of assessments allowing families to provide input.

Application leaders had stressed that the work would go on regardless of the outcome of the award, but would be spurred to move faster with the federal money.

The application also boasted Colorado current work creating early-learning standards for children from birth to age 8.

Currently, early-learning standards apply only to children ages 3 to 5.

"Colorado has seen so much progress already in the quality of early learning programs that help ensure every child starts school ready to learn," said Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia. "We will continue to build on the solid foundation already set for creating a stronger workforce, providing families with the tools and resources they need and to building community capacity to serve young children and their families."

The union, Colorado Education Association, who did support this round's application, also released a statement on Friday, emphasizing that the support continues.

"Today's announcement on Colorado's most recent Race to the Top application is obviously disappointing," said Beverly Ingle, Colorado Education Association President. "As the professionals working every day to teach and support Colorado's public school students, we know how critical early literacy and childhood development are to success in school. We strongly supported the Race to the Top application and are proud of the effort Colorado has made."

In the second round of the competition, Colorado officials were critical of judges who gave Colorado a wide margin of differing reviews. Just a month ago, the department rejected a formal Denver Post request for the names of the reviewers.

Colorado is also still awaiting an announcement of awards for another portion of race to the top funds that was made available only for the finalists of the second round. Colorado would be eligible for $17.9 million of that award, focused on K-12 education.

Because the grants are smaller than in the first two rounds, the original Race to the Top applications from the second round had to be updated to limit the scope, but the main projects could not be new ideas.

Colorado chose to focus on two projects: implementation of new state standards and of educator- evaluation systems.

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